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Chapter 23- Sicily

(July 10, 1943)

From the bridge, Yelland watches as another pair of F/A-18s launch into the sky from the forward catapults. At last, the day has arrived for the invasion of Sicily to begin.

The Nimitz had spent almost two months on convoy duty, escorting over 15 convoys across the Atlantic. Under the protection of the Nimitz and her skilled aviators, convoys suffered only minimal losses. At the same time, very heavy losses were inflicted on the U-Boat arm. Nimitz' aircraft alone were responsible for the sinking of 29 U-Boats, and assisted warships in finding and sinking 18 more. This, on top of 31 U-Boats sunk solely by surface warships, tallied up for a total of 68 U-Boats sunk, with several more damaged.

After crossing into July, having wrapped up escort duty, the Nimitz stopped to resupply in Britain, then headed south the join the invasion force, numbering in the thousands of ships, being massed to invade Sicily. Nimitz was the only full size carrier supporting the operation, with only a few escort carriers also around. HMS Formidable was nearby, but was focused on preventing reinforcements to the island.

Today, Nimitz' duties are slightly different. There are surprisingly few forces on Sicily, and the beaches are even less defended. The landings themselves will be almost unchallenged. At first. Nimitz' duties are to keep the skies clear and hit any heavy forces that could counterattack against the beacheads.

The Tomcats are launching today with a full load of missiles. The Hornets are also armed for air to air combat, their only air-to surface weapons being six rocket pods, three mounted on each of their inboard wing pylons, which are to be used against aircraft parked on the ground. The rest of their pylons are loaded up with Sparrows and Sidewinders. The Intruders are mostly armed either with 500 lb bombs to hit airplanes and smaller targets like tanks and gun positions, or with 1,000 pound bombs to target bunkers, pillboxes, and crater runways. A pair of Hawkeyes are airborne to control the air battle for all Allied forces. A Prowler is providing jamming support. The Sea Kings are on standby for SAR. And 6 Vikings are on standby for tanker duty.

Another pair of aircraft, this time Hornets, taxi up to the catapult. Seconds later, the catapults spring forward, hurling the two Hornets into the air, climbing into the brightening sky.

Most of the strike force is already airborne. It takes only a few more minutes to get the last planes into the air. As soon as all the planes are in the air, they immediately turn towards Sicily and head inland at 450 mph, wanting to get over Sicily quickly so they can attack before the Italians get too many aircraft airborne to resist.

The Tomcats separate into individual flights and spread out. With the distance between the flights, and how much each flight is spread out, the Tomcats cover almost 80 miles of sky, with their powerful radars able to cover almost the entire island.

As the Tomcats begin to lock up and fire missiles at the few fighters currently over the island, the Hornets descend to 3,000 feet and punch the afterburners, accelerating past Mach 1. The sonic boom echoes over the landscape, causing a number of Italians to duck out of habit, thinking it's the start of an artillery bombardment.

The Hornets separate into their four flights, heading to target the four main airfields on Sicily. Streaking over the landscape at speeds now approaching 700 miles per hour, it doesn't take the Hornets long to reach the targeted airfields.

As they reach the airfields, the Hornets cut the afterburners and pop their speed brakes, slowing down to fighting airspeed in the mid 400s. Separating out to cover the entire airfield, the Hornets dive to the attack. As they get within firing range, the pilots squeeze the triggers, alternating between spraying rockets and 20mm cannon fire down onto the flightline. Rockets and 20mm cannon shells tear into the fighters and bombers parked on the flightline, shredding them and turning them into flaming hulks.

The Hornets pull out of their initial runs, then pull up and head back towards the landing beaches to use their remaining rockets against Italian troop positions. As they do, some of the Intruders head in to attack the airfields with 1,000 pound armor piercing bombs to put the runways out of action. As they do, a pair of Tomcats circle each airfield, ready to engage any Italian fighters that may take off to threaten the Intruders.

At one airfield, the closest to the landing beaches, a pair of Intruders bear down on the airfield, bombs armed. Orbiting over the airfield is Commander Owens and his wingman. The two pilots scan the ground visually for aircraft taking off while their RIOs monitor their radars for the same.

As the Intruders approach, Owens spots something. Looking more carefully, he sees four C202 fighters taxiing onto the runway.

"Whiz, we got four C202s on the runway. Let's show 'em they can't escape us," Owens says.

"You got it," Whiz responds over the radio.

The two Tomcats wing over into a Split S, pulling out just a hundred feet off the ground. Their wings swing back as they streak low over the ground at over 500 mph.

The two Tomcats power up their Sidewinders. Both pilots wait as they close in, then, squeeze the triggers. Two Sidewinders launch and streak away from the Tomcats, heading towards the C202s that are still on their takeoff roll. The missiles impact the rear C202s while they're still on the runway, turning them into tumbling fireballs.

The two remaining C202s quickly lift off the runway and break left to try and avoid the Tomcats. However, the two Tomcats are fair enough behind them that they are able to cut inside their turn. The two Tomcats switch over to their cannons and squeeze the triggers, letting streams of 20mm shells streak out into the path of the C202, shredding them and sending them down out of the sky.

"Yee-haw!" Whiz calls out over the radio as the two Tomcats climb into the sky. As they do, the Intruders begin their attack runs. Each Intruder flies in low over the airfield. As they fly over the runways, they drop a total of eight 1,000 pound bombs. Each bomb penetrates the surface of the runway before exploding, blasting large craters in the runways, rendering them useless.

At each of the other three airfields, more Intruders have similarly cratered the runways of the other three airfields, crippling the Italians' ability to respond to the invasion with their aircraft.

Meanwhile, near the landing beaches, the Hornets are ready to continue their attacks. While the Intruders armed with 500 pound bombs have started targeting tanks, artillery positions, and troop concentrations much further inland, the Hornets are ready to provide close air support for the troops landing on the beaches.

As the sun continues to rise, Commander Byron watches from his cockpit as the hundreds of landing craft launched from the transports begin making their way towards the beaches. Byron allows himself a moment of pride for the brave troops in the landing craft willing to go ashore against such a formidable enemy. Then, he refocuses on his mission and scans the ground below.

As the first landing craft reach the shore, Byron watches the shore carefully. For the first few minutes, Byron sees no sign of any return fire being directed at the troops.

Then, as hundreds of troops reach the back of the beach, Byron spots some of them starting to drop. Scanning the area beyond the beach, he quickly spots a small ridge, behind which are a number of Italian troops firing at the troops coming onto the beach.

Byron immediately wings over and dives towards the spot. Centering his gunsight on the Italian position, Byron fires a pair of rockets, then also squeezes off a half second burst from his 20mm cannon. Explosions tear through the Italian troops, silencing the position.

Across the landing fronts, more Hornets dive to attack more isolated Italian positions. Thankfully, there are only a few troops around the landing beaches, and with the help of the Hornets, most of the enemy positions have been silenced quickly.

It doesn't take Byron long before he realizes he's running low on both fuel and ammunition. Byron, along with many of the Hornets and Intruders, start heading back towards the Nimitz to refuel and rearm, while the Tomcats continue their patrols, temporarily taking on requests for close air support with strafing runs.

Meanwhile, on board the Nimitz, Yelland has been monitoring the situation from CIC. He finds himself smiling. The Italians' air capacity has been devastated, and now troops are ashore. Hopefully the invasion continues with this kind of luck.

And, I'll end there. Hope this good even though it was short.

Next chapter will be one you guys have been more or less requesting. It should be up soon. Until it is, please leave a review, and stay tuned!